Vijayawada | Oct 26, 2016: Illegal blasting at quarries in Donabonda, Paritala and Jupudi villages near national highway 65 is going on unabated. Despite the complaints from thousands of families in the villages, the unscrupulous blasting has been going on. It should be recalled that Mining, Revenue, Police and Mines and Geology department have carried out checks but failed to stop the activity.
About 150 metal quarry sites are located at Ibrahimpatnam, Jupudi, Trilochanapuram, Donabanda, Paritala and G Konuduru areas in Krishna district. It is alleged that people running operations at Donabanda, Pritala and Jupudi quarries are resorting illegal blasting. The quarry owners using rig bore units for hill blasting. In spite of the opposition from the local people, the illegal practice is going on unabated.
It should be recalled that the government has permitted only manual blasting by using blasting material. But the quarry owners are accused of using 20 to 22 tonnes of gelatin sticks, urea, ammonia and nitrogen for the rock hill blasting, which is illegal as per Mining department norms.
“When blasting occurs, the stimuli extend to about 10 km and houses are severely damaged, said a resident of Paritala in Kanchikacherla mandal. As per mining department rules, every quarry owner should blast without using dangerous explosive material. For that, they should have obtained permission from Mining, Revenue and Police departments. Some quarries doing blasting without prior permission and they were managing the government officials, allege the villagers.
Quarry owners are indulging in dangerous blasting, as usage of rig bore unit gives nearly 900 lorry loads of raw material, while the normal blasting give only three to four lorry loads of metal only, one the quarry owners informed ‘The Hans India’. However, a quarry owner supported the blasting by saying that they did everything as per government norms and the procedure involved no danger to the nearest villagers.
Though Nandigama Court gave a direction against rig bore unit blasting in 2012, the owners were disobeying the court directions,” said the Paritala Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS), president Maganti Vinay Bhushan. The villagers of Paritala and Donbanda were worried about the illegal blasts which were damaging their houses, he added. The ruling party leaders had been supporting the quarry owners, he alleged. He further said that when complained to mining department, they were shying away from the responsibility by saying that blasting would not come under their jurisdiction.
A resident of Paritala villager Chintha Ravindranadh demanded that the State government control the illegal blasting and should take action against quarry owners. Local police and mining department officers would not take action against illegal blasting, he said. He alleged that police, revenue and mining department officers were colluded with quarry owners.
(Source: http://www.thehansindia.com/)